Throwback Thursday– Smooth-billed Ani Transparent Watercolor

Here is another “Blast from the Past.” I finished this painting in 2002.  I especially enjoyed painting the Everglades-looking scrubby vegetation and the bronzy colors of the Ani.

Although the Smooth-billed Ani looks a bit like a grackle, they are actually in the cuckoo family. Groups of the birds are often seen in scrubby vegetation near fields. They have a strange vertically compressed bill that is somewhat reminiscent of a parrot’s.